Torchlight 2 developer keen to “break the mold” with ARPGs

Runic’s Max Schaefer has said the company’s next action RPG is likely to be a little bit different from its existing oeuvre.

Schaefer told I Eat Games that Runic is almost certain to make Torchlight 3, but it might not be a direct a sequel as Torchlight 2 was to the first game.

“I don’t know if it will expressly be a Torchlight game but with more, in the sense that Torchlight 2 was the same as Torchlight 1 but with more,” he said.

“I would imagine the next iteration in the Torchlight universe would involve a twist, and I don’t know what that would be just yet.

“Our team has made the Diablos, Mythos, now we’ve worked on the Torchlights and they’ve all been action RPGs. We’re eager to break that mold a little bit.”

Schaefer noted that Runic would be unlikely to move into a whole new genre; action RPGs are definitely the developer’s bag.

“I think it might just be our one good idea in the world. It’s our sole marketable skill and if we weren’t doing this we would probably working at Home Depot or something,” he joked.

“I think it’s just something we had a lot of early success with in Diablo 1 and it just sort of stuck with us. We kind of have a head start on everyone else in making them. Travis [Baldree] our president and lead programmer made Fate. He’s got a lot of experience and has had success with this genre. Starting a new company it seemed like the obvious and most responsible thing for us was to stick to what’s in our wheelhouse make something we know we can do really well. Something that would allow us to build a foundation beneath us before branching out and taking some risks.

“That’s kind of part of the deal with Torchlight. It was really really fun making Torchlight 2 so I suspect we’ll never get too far from that but we definitely want to put a twist on it for the next thing.”

Torchlight 2 is available now on PC, with a Mac client due in a few months.